In Saturday, Tina basically ran to the Orphanage. She didn't want to have a conversation with Sadie, she just wanted to talk to her sister. It was an exhausted week for her. This week Queenie was already awake when Tina arrived, she just finished to get dressed. "Hey, Teenie! I woke up early so I'll be awake when you'll arrive!" Queenie smiled at her sister.
Tina looked at her sister with a sad face. "That was an awful week." She sighed and went to sit on the bed.
"What happened?" Queenie asked, she was really tried not to read her sister's thoughts.
"Just read my mind, I don't want to talk about that." Tina told her.
"Wow, it was that bad?" Queenie asked, Tina nodded. Queenie scanned Tina's mind. "It seems only the first two days were hard."
"Does it matter?" Tina asked.
"I guess it's not..." Queenie came to sit next to her sister and hugged her.
"Everyone has perfect families, great life and we are the only ones who here, alone!' Tina called, tears fall from her eyes. She waited the whole week to get to her to safe place, her sister, so she could finally cry.
"We have each other." Queenie reminded her.
"Yes, and no one will take care of us. We all alone in this world." Tina mumbled.
"We'll be alright, you don't need to worry about the future yet, we have so many years to be here." Queenie mentioned.
"I know that, but it's seven years from now, and I just don't know how we going to handle ourselves." Tina told her.
"We'll have the money our parents left, and you'll find a great job and everything will be fine." Queenie tried to reassure her sister.
"You right. You are amazing sister, you know that?" Tina smiled faintly to Queenie.
"I do." Queenie smiled back.
"I just wish someone else could understand how we feel besides each other." Tina sighed.
"We are not alone here, there so many other orphan kids in the same situation as we do." Queenie said.
"They don't understand it! Most of them are No-Maj-borns who decided to give up on their parents! They have families and they chose to give up on them!" Tina called.
"Yes, and it's not fair that they have families and they choosing to give up on them when it's the most important thing." Queenie added. "Life isn't fair."
"How come I'm the only one in my whole year who is orphan?! Why it had to happened to us?" Tina cried.
"Until you finish Ilvermorny you won't be alone from your year." Queenie reminded her.
"Yes, because another No-Maj-borns will choose to throw their families away." Tina rolled her eyes.
"Disasters can happen. We had a disaster; this orphanage proves that we are not the only one with disasters like that. There are some children who haven't start Ilvermorny. It's just weird that you the only one from your year." Queenie mentioned.
"I know! And it's not fair! I'm feel like I'm all alone in Ilvermorny! My roommates can't understand me, and no one in my year can!" Tina called, she stood up and started walking in the room.
"I'm understand you!" Queenie told her.
"I know, but I want a friend who understand me, who is not my sister!" Tina covered her face in her hands.
"You'll find someone like that one day." Queenie ensured her.
"You don't know that, and you have Lester here to talk with him." Tina groaned.
"You're right." Queenie sighed; she didn't know what to say.
"They can't understand me! Hazel is a No-Maj-born who need to deal with her own problems and she could have decided to abandon her family and not looking back!" Tina yelled.
"You can't think that." Queenie stopped her.
"I can't complain that she wants to leave her family?" Tina asked.
"You can, but you're thinking the opposite. You are thinking that you want a friend here and she should choose it, and you can't hope it for her. She has the right to choose her own path in the wizarding world and she can choose in keep hiding what she is from her family." Queenie told her.
"I know, I know, but everything is just hard for me. Hazel can't understand me, Nella and Evelyn have perfect families and I just feel like I hate the world!" Tina was really frustrated.
"I hate the world too, he is not kind to us, but we have nothing to do with that." Queenie got up and hugged her sister, they stand like that hugging for few moments.
"Thanks, I needed to complain about the world, I feel much better now." Tina said after a while.
"That good." Queenie smiled. "Besides, according to Lester who is a huge Quodpot fan, Evelyn's perfect family has some big secret no one knows."
"Wait, what?" Tina asked, surprised.
"He says that they hide something, you can ask him if you want." Queenie shrugged.
"I'm pretty sure they indeed Quodpot family." Tina said.
"Yes, they are, but that doesn't mean they don't have secrets." Queenie told her.
Frankly, Tina did want to know that Evelyn's family is not that perfect, she needed this comfort. To know that her roommates doesn't have a perfect life. "Alright."
"Great so let's go, but I really need to mention that you can't say that." Queenie noted.
"I didn't say that, I only thought about that and you the only one who can hear it." Tina reminded her.
"I know." Queenie said as they left their room. They went upstairs, until they arrived to Lester's room. Queenie knocked on the door.
"Open." Someone called, Queenie opened the door. "Hey Queenie, Tina it's nice to see you again." The boy who was on the floor told them. There was another boy on the bed who read a book.
"Hey Lester, Hey Elmo." Tina told the boys.
"Hey." Elmo, the boys who was on the bed, mumbled. He was six years old; he was in the orphanage all his life; he didn't know what happened to his parents. He had red hair and freckles.
"So, girls, what's going on? It has to be something special if you came to visit me in your meeting day." The other boy, Lester, got up on the floor to ask them. Lester was nine years old like Queenie, he has been in the orphanage for two years by now. He was from poor family and his parents had ague; they went to find cure for ague but it was from a shaggy place because that what they could afford to. The cure didn't brew well and they both got poisoned from it and died.
"Tina wanted to ask you something." Queenie told him.
"Yes... I did. One of my roommates is Evelyn Ferlet and you are a Quodpot expert and Queenie told me you know something interesting about them?" Tina asked.
"You know Sylvester Ferlet's daughter?!" Lester asked with shinning eyes. "Nice to know he has one." He muttered silently.
"Yes, I do." Tina answered, she didn't hear what he muttered.
"Cool! I'm so jealous at you, I'd love to meet her!" Lester called.
"Anyway, Lester, you said you know something interesting about them." Queenie decided to get to the point.
"Yes, yes." He went to his shelf and got out an album. It was an album to collect inside cards of all the Quodpot players. The cards were inside the bag of Quod Candies, each bag had one card. "I have everyone from the Ferlets." He opened the album in the page of 'The white Sparks'. "This is Sylvester, the manager of the team, the Ferlets founded this team years ago." He pointed on the top card, "This is Donald, he is Sylvester's brother, and this is Alexander his son, they are really good. This player is Harrison Aston, his sister, Annabelle is Sylvester's wife." He finished pointed on the players who related to Evelyn. "The couch is Cyrus is Sylvester and Donald's father." He pointed on the card who was next to Sylvester's.
"There are a big family, now it's sounds like Evelyn didn't talk much about her family." Tina muttered.
Lester flipped some pages until he arrived to the page of 'The Blue Arrows'. "This is Alexander's younger brother, Donovan, he wanted to be different and went to play in another team."
"Lester, get to the point, you have more gossip than one of them who plays for the wrong team right?" Queenie urged him.
"Yes, yes, Sylvester and his wife Annabelle Ferlet. Sylvester is a great player and one day, before twelve years he quits. He suddenly decided to become the manager and stop play. Annabelle never liked the spotlight, but Sylvester did, he was one of the best players after all. Annabelle disappeared, no one saw her in years, but according the rumors, something happened to her. She might had a problem with the pregnancy, maybe one of their kids passed away, or she could be ill, no one knows the trues." Lester explained to the sisters.
"Or maybe they just decide their girls should be outside the spotlight and when Annabelle got pregnant, this makes sense with the years." Tina shrugged.
"Maybe, but no one knows, there are too many rumors and the only facts, is Sylvester is not saying anything about his family and he stopped playing so fans won't try to find the information, even the number of kids they have is also not known." Lester told them.
"They are four girls; Evelyn is the oldest." Tina said.
"Nice to know." Lester mumbled.
"Thanks for the information, Lester, I'll talk to you later, we should go now Tina." Queenie said and dragged her sister out of the room, she read their minds she felt that Tina didn't feel comfortable in the conversation anymore and Lester wasn't sure what he should say next, so Queenie decided it's the time to stop.
"Thanks, but I don't really believe it." Tina said after they left the room.
"I know that." Queenie answered.
"I just don't think Evelyn is hide something." Tina continued.
"And maybe you're right, but there are rumors and I thought you should know them, that all." Queenie shrugged.
"I know, but I won't talk to her about that, this is her private life." Tina mentioned.
"This alright, but I'd love to meet your friends, so you should bring them with you one time." Queenie said to her sister.
"So, you could read Evelyn's mind?" Tina rolled her eyes.
"No! Not if you don't want me to!" Queenie reassured her.
"Great." Tina said.
"But I really do want to meet them, so talk to Sadie about that." Queenie shrugged as they arrived to their room and opened the door.
"Talk to Sadie about what?" Sadie asked them, she was inside their room.
"What are you doing inside our room?" Tina asked her.
"I'm came to look for you two, it's time for lunch and you not skipping lunch like last week." She explained to the sisters, crossing her arms.
"We are sorry about that." Queenie apologized.
"That's alright, you lost track of time, I just wanted to make sure it won't happened again." Sadie smiled at them.
"We should go eating." Tina told her sister, and turned around to went the dinning room downstairs. Queenie walked with her to the stairs.
"Hey, what did you wanted to tell me?" Sadie catches up with them.
"I offered Tina she would bring Hazel, Nella and Evelyn because I would like to meet them." Queenie explained.
"But not now, not soon. I still need to get them know better, but maybe some day, in a couple of months." Tina quickly said, she will invite her friends at some point but now it's way to early.
"Sure, we can talk about that sometime." Sadie smiled.
"Great!" Queenie called.
Tina rushed to the dinning room and Queenie was right after her, she couldn't completely explain why but she just didn't want to talk with Sadie, she didn't want to tell what she is feeling, the only one she wanted to tell her this was Queenie and Tina was afraid that the moment she and Sadie will start talk, she would have to tell her everything.
Tina didn't believe to what Lester said but she still was curious enough to randomly asked Evelyn more about her family. So, she waited for a good opportunity to ask some questions. Of course, in Monday afternoon Evelyn came back from one of the Qudpot meetings ready to talk about brooms. So, Tina tried to figure out how to join the conversation while she did her homework. "Nella, what do you think is the best broom?"
"It depends on the brooms you talk about. If you consider only the American manufacturers you have only two; McTawny Broomsticks and Starsweeper. McTawnys are awful and Starsweeper is a new company and they have only one broom who was released two years ago and not everyone using it." Nella said.
"You are saying the McTawnys are awful only because they're using in wood from Ireland and not from local woods like in the Everglades." Evelyn rolled her eyes and laughed.
"Anyway, you have to talk also about the British brooms either. I think the Silver Arrow is better then the Moontrimmer, and the Starsweeper have a potential but he is not good enough yet, so I'll choose the Silver Arrow." Nella finished.
"Exactly! The British brooms are pretty good compare to the Americans!" Evelyn called, she wanted to get to this.
"What is your point?" Nella wanted to cut to the chase.
"Nia wanted me to give my broom to someone else, because I have the best Broom! I'm not going to do that! If she wants a Moontrimmer she needs to let me play!" Evelyn called.
"Well, it is your broom." Nella said.
"Wait, Evelyn, really non of your family is using in Americans brooms? Isn't that more complicated?" Tina finds a way to be part of the conversation. This subject wasn't interesting for her but she wanted to talk with them.
"Yes, we all invite brooms. Mostly the Moontrimmer but also the Silver Arrow. We like to be different, so when most of the players using McTawny Broomsticks, we are using in the other option. Maybe, we would start using in the Starweeper if we'll understand it is also a suitable broom." Evelyn explained.
"Who decide on the broom your family is using?" Nella asked, Tina didn't need to even do that herself.
"My father who is anyway the manager of 'The White Sparks' which my family founded, and my grandfather who is the couch." Evelyn answered.
"Your family founded a Quodpot team, I should have known that." Nella muttered.
"Why your father is the manager and your grandfather is the couch why not the opposite?" Tina asked.
"That what my father preferred." Evelyn shrugged.
Before Tina or Nella could ask another question, Hazel ran to the room crying, again after the No-Maj gathering. "I hate everything! I hate the world!" Hazel called and collapsed on her bed, that was just like last week.
"What happened this time?" Nella asked softly.
"They want us to meet with someone every month! The MACUSA's kids care or something like that..." Hazel mumbled while she cried.
"Wait, what?" Tina asked with widen eyes, her quill almost fell from her hand, "which one?"
"Why does it matter?" Evelyn asked, puzzled.
"Because all the orphans meet with one too..." Tina muttered.
"Well, I'm sure it just so someone outside the school could see how you adapting to the new situation, so you could talk about your struggles in your new life." Nella tried to convince them that it's for their own good.
"It's doesn't make it right! Hazel, who was the employee?" Tina asked again.
"I think it was Pearl Cordula," Hazel whimpered.
"You kidding me!" Tina called in frustration. She knew it was coming since the moment Hazel got inside the room, she had a feeling that would be Hazel's answer, but she was still mad about that.
"Let me guess, she is the one from the MACUSA who responsible about you?" Evelyn asked, starting to understand why Tina asking all of this questions.
"Exactly! And if she is here..." Tina started to say.
"That means you also have a meeting with her." Sadie, who was at the entrance of the room, completed her sentence.
"You should have told me she is coming!" Tina called; she was a bit mad at Sadie because of that.
"I wanted to. But you made this very clear that you didn't want me to say a word in Saturday." Sadie reminded her.
"You still should have told me! You could have told me that yesterday!" Tina yelled.
"Hazel, how are you? I'll come back soon to talk with you." Sadie told Hazel.
Tina went out of her room, but then she remembered she has no clue were this meeting will be held. "You still should have told me." Tina said again.
"I know, I'm sorry, I didn't want to tell you this next to Queenie, and besides this quick conversation we had, you didn't want us to talk, and I wanted to respect that." Sadie explained herself again.
"Where do I meet her?" Tina asked, she didn't have any patient to hear Sadie's apologizing.
"In the private room." Sadie pointed out at the door who was in the main room.
"Come back to Hazel." Tina told Sadie and walked to the room. She knocked on the door.
"Come in." She heard from the room. Tina opened the door; she was never inside this room before. There was a board in there for the Quidditch and Quodpot, apparently the strategy meetings held there. In the middle of the room there were to armchairs; one was empty and on the other sat a woman with blonde curly hair tied up into a bun with some strands on her face, her eyes were in a grey-blue color. She wore pink robes; the color of the kids care department. Her name, 'Pearl Cordula' was written in white on her robes. "Tina, I'm glad to see you again, it's been a long time since we met." She smiled at her. Tina sighed and sat on the empty armchair.
{Flashback, April, New York magical health center}
Tina and Queenie sat at the waiting room, hugging each other. Queenie cried softly on Tina's shoulder. Only few days ago they had a celebrate with their parents and now they are dying. The worst part was that their parents didn't ask for treatment in time so they could celebrate with them. They felt guilty, especially Queenie, who felt like as a Legilimens she was supposed to find out about that sooner and convince them to come here. They appreciated that their parents wanted them to have a perfect holiday, but it wasn't worth their life.
"What's going to happen with us?" Queenie asked her sister.
"I don't know." Tina muttered.
"Maybe they'll feel better soon." Queenie tried to be optimistic.
"I hope you are right." Tina added, though she was more realistic and knew it's probably won't happen.
After few moments their parents' healer, Duana Bandrel, came to the waiting room with female in pink robes. That was weird because the healers had teal robes, so she wasn't belong there. The women stopped in the entrance to talk for a moment.
Queenie looked at them, "No, no, no, no, no, no!" She called and shook her head. Her cry got more intense.
Tina looked at Queenie, glanced to the women and looked back at Queenie. She quickly understood what happened and tears fall from her eyes as well. She knew she needs to pull herself together and be the big sister. "You read their minds? Are you sure?" She asked Queenie.
"Yes, I'm! They're gone..." Queenie muttered, crying softly.
Tina hugged Queenie tighter, "You are not supposed to know that yet, remember no one can know you are Legilimens." It was hard for Tina to say that in a harsh way, but now it was her responsible to make sure no one will find out about her sister abilities. Their parents always said that if people will find out they can try and use Queenie so they need to be on guard.
The women came closer to the girls and the healer kneeled forward to them. The woman in pink robes sat next to Tina. "Hey girls... You remember me? I'm Healer Duana Bandrel, I need to tell you something." Duana told them.
"They're gone?" Tina cried, she was sad, very sad, but she knew she should talk and not Queenie so they won't find out she can read their minds.
"I'm sorry sweetheart, you are right... condolences..." Duana told them and put her hand on Tina's shoulder.
Queenie's cry became to whimpers, "No, no, no, why does it happened?!" She called.
"Your parents came here to late, I'm sorry we couldn't help them." Duana told them with a sad look.
"What's going to happened now?" Tina asked her.
Duana got up and smiled to the woman in pink. "This is Pearl, she is going to explain everything." Pearl nodded to Duana and she left, so she could come back to work.
"Tina, Queenie it is nice to meet you, I'm sorry for your lost. I'm Pearl Cordula, I work at the MACUSA kid's care department under the Office for Magic Relations and Education. I know you have a hard time now, and you are grieving, but we need to talk about your future." Pearl told the sisters. Tina were already looked at her and Queenie glanced from time to time.
"So, you here to tell us what's going to happen with us next?" Tina sighed.
"She is here to throw us away into an orphanage." Queenie whimpered.
"Calm down, I'm not going to 'throw you away', I need to know if you have another family or place to live at in America." Pearl told them, with reassuring smile.
"No, it was only the four of us. Our grandfather died a year ago." Tina cried.
"So, the only option you've got is send us to an orphanage." Queenie rolled her eyes, tears still falling on her face.
"Yes, you are right... I'm very sorry about your lost, I'm going to send a letter to the Orphanage we are coming and we'll need to go to your house to collect your stuff. Your house is connected to the Floo Network?" Pearl asked them and stood.
The girls nodded, they still cried, but a bit less by now. "When we are going there?" Queenie asked.
"Soon, I'll need to arrange a portkey so I'm going to take care of everything, don't worry. Someone will take care of you." Pearl told them and left.
"We only have each other now, Queenie, no one going to care about us like our parents did." Tina muttered.
{End flashback}
"Tina, how are you?" Pearl asked her warmly.
"Fine," Tina answered shortly.
"It's good to hear. You had good time in Ilvermorny until now?" Pearl asked.
"Yes," Tina answered, she didn't want to be in that conversation, she didn't want to cooperate with it.
"You and your roommates become friends?" Pearl asked.
"Yes," Tina said again.
"You and Hazel are in the same room, right?" Pearl realized.
"Yes," Tina continued to answer with one word; yes.
"Tina, I know you hate our meetings, but you do need to cooperate with them for your well been, so can you please answer with more than one word?" Pearl asked frustrated, Tina always answered short answers, because she didn't want to be there, she barely responded in contrast to Queenie who was more talkative.
"Alright." Tina responded and rolled her eyes.
"Good, you and Hazel are friends?"
"We are," Tina answered, still shortly.
"Nice to know you already bonded with someone." Pearl was satisfied, Tina didn't have any friends in the Orphanage no one in her year was there; so, she didn't try. Not that was supposed to matter, there were two kids who younger than her by only a month, though they will be in the next year in Ilvermorny. It was a weird coincidence that no one in her year also lived in the Orphanage but Tina used it as excuse to talk with most of the kids. She knew them all but she didn't get friends with them. Pearl theorized it was because she didn't feel she belong to the Orphanage and was still in denial but Tina didn't talk to her and shared her thoughts.
"Thanks." Tina muttered.
"You have any struggles? You need help in something?" Pearl questioned.
"No, I don't." Tina told her; she did say more than one word in her answers now.
"Anything important happened in the past two weeks?" Peal asked.
"Nothing at all." Tina said.
Pearl sighed, "You can go. But I'll come here once a month because the No-Maj-borns and you will also need to meet with me after I meet with them." Pearl clarified.
"I know, thanks for letting me go, bye." Tina said the longest sentence since the start of the meeting and ran from the room. She hated those conversations, before Ilvermorny she saw Pearl once a week so she could help them adjust the new situation, but Pearl didn't help. Tina really hated that she needs to have regular sessions with her. It was nothing against Pearl, Tina just didn't get used to be an orphan and this meeting remind it to her every single time. So, she barely talked, she didn't feel comfortable to talk about her feelings with Pearl, she needed more time. She thought that because she is in Ilvermorny now she will only need to see Pearl in the vacations; three times a year. But no, she would have a monthly meeting with her. It's maybe an improvement from the Orphanage, but Tina couldn't shake the thought that Pearl responsible on the No-Maj-borns Thunderbird because she was responsible on her. Tina planned to run to her room but remembered that Sadie is probably there with Hazel and she didn't want to talk about that with Hazel she wasn't ready yet. She anyway cried a bit so she continued in the hallway to the bathroom to wash her face.
"Hey Tina, why are you crying?" Phiri asked her, she was in the bathroom and washed her hands.
Tina didn't notice her before she talked, "It doesn't matter."
"So, I can guess? Or you want me to leave you alone?" Phiri asked, she sat on the marble between two sinks, to indicate she prefer to stay.
Tina shrugged, "Do what you want."
"I think you just had a meeting with the kid's care woman because you are an orphan and that is why you crying." Phiri guessed.
"How do you know that?!" Tina called, whipping off her tears and looking at her.
"Don't worry, it's not rumors or anything. It's just that in the girls meeting you barely said personal things, you didn't say anything about where you live or your parents so I guessed. Besides, I saw you walking to the Orphanage." Phiri told her.
"Well, you are right." Tina sighed, she also sat on the marble. "But how did you know that today the kid's care came? You don't have No-Maj-born in your room."
"Yes, but my mother is the kid's care responsible in Minnesota, so I recognized their pink robes and noticed they here." Phiri answered.
"Wait, each state has someone responsible on Kid's care? But not every day kids get orphaned." Tina stated.
"Of course not, they are responsible on the No-Maj-borns in their states, someone needs to tell them they are part of the magical world and that is their responsible. My mom told Gale Peterson he is a wizard." Phiri told her.
"Who is that?" Tina asked, not recognized the name.
"Right, I'm sorry, he is in my class you probably haven't met him. Gale Peterson he is a No-Maj-born from Minnesota, he is in our house, but in my class. I met him before the year started, so I could help him get use to the Wizarding World." Phiri shrugged.
"That's nice." Tina smiled.
"Yes, I know." Phiri said.
"Wait, if it is the job of the kid's care to tell the No-Maj-borns about our world then why Hazel complained about Pearl, she was supposed to meet someone else in that job." Tina wondered.
"The No-Maj-borns didn't meet them in the pink robes, they came with regular clothes so the No-Majs parents won't suspect. Gale is also was a bit frustrated from meeting Pearl. We already spoke about that," Phiri told her.
"I guess all of the No-Maj-borns hard with that, I can get it, I hate the meetings with Pearl." Tina sighed.
"It's not fun to the kids but they do very important job." Phiri reminded her.
"Yes, I know." Tina agreed.
"Good, and you should tell this to Hazel too, they would get use to that, it's just the beginning." Phiri told her.
"I will tell her that, thanks for the talk Rina, you cheered me up." Tina smiled to her.
"You just call me Rina instead of Phiri?" She asked and raised her eyebrows.
"Yes, My nickname is Tina so it's more logic for me to call you Rina." Tina shrugged.
"I guess it does make sense," Phiri laughed, "fine, you can call me Rina."
Just then the door opened and Tina's roommates where there; it was already their bath time. "Hey Phiri, hey Tina, are you alright?" Nella asked her.
"Yes, I do." Tina nodded.
"I think it's my cue to leave, it was very nice conversation Tina, we can do that again soon. I'll see you around girls." Phiri waved to them and left the bathroom.
Tina smiled, and glanced at Phiri. She was a nice girl, she liked her, she felt comfortable with her. Besides her roommates, Phiri was the first girl in her year that she enjoyed to talk with her and wanted to get to know her more. She found a new friend. She didn't experience what Tina did but Phiri at least heard in her home about stories like that.
Author note: That is the longest chapter in this fanfic until now. Since Queenie was in most of this chapter, I decided to post it on her birthday; so happy birthday to Queenie Goldstein! Today, January 6, it's Queenie's birthdate. This chapter is for her honor.
I think it's important to treat the orphan children and kids with difficulties so I wanted to have it in my fanfic because the magical Britian do not care about them at all. I do believe that in America because they can't have these kids in the No-Maj world there will be more awarness about this subject.